Stephanites and Ichnelates, named after the two jackals who are the protagonists of the first, main fable of the book, is a work of Indian origin, successively translated into Middle Persian in the sixth century, Arabic in the eighth century, and then Greek and other European medieval languages. It was a very popular story, which enjoyed a wide international reception.
The first Byzantine translation from the Arabic was made in the eleventh century by Symeon Seth and dedicated to the emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The present “Eugenian” recension offers a more complete version: while making use of Symeon Seth’s work, its author also resorted to the Arabic version to restore the sections omitted by Seth. It is this enlarged recension, completed in twelfth-century Sicily, that has here been edited and translated.
Alison Noble and her collaborators Alexander Alexakis and Richard P. H. Greenfield have to be thanked for making Stephanites available to a wider public. It is still a little-known text, in spite of the international popularity that it enjoyed throughout the Middle Ages. This is even more true for the Eugenian version, which remains less known than the one by Symeon Seth, even if its proximity to the Arabic original, its copious metatextual apparatus, and its Sicilian context make it particularly interesting.
Corinne Jouanno
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
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